The Arts Kete: Learning Guitar Chords #4.

This is my fourth entry on my blog about the guitar kete, and this is my 8th day learning the guitar's chords.

I can now switch proficiently between D, G, and A, and I am getting far better at switching to E. It still needs some work, though.

I also know E Minor and A minor.

I am still enjoying this workshop a lot and I can't wait for our performance next week.

The Choose - Your - Own - Adventure Quiz That I Made In Google Forms.

No, I don't get your emails.

I just get to see the results.

"The Bank Job." - Far from finished.

Note: I restarted my story because my paragraphs were far too long and I had far too much information to include in the story. This is all I have so far:

Darkness, being cut into by the street lights’ illumination. The bank was the main attraction of the town, it’s complicated design was not only pleasing to the eye, but it made everyone forget about the gloom and melancholiness that flowed through the town. New York was a sad place. Everyone knows that. “The City of Broken Dreams,” a lot of people call it. Police roamed the town, roadblocks everywhere. "So you say there's gonna be a robbery?" Investigator Lestrade asked his colleague. "I won't lie, it's certain. The evidence doesn't lie."
"Thank you, Miss Cain."
Valkyrie Cain was Lestrade's colleague. She kept Lestrade on the right track, and was able to be his second opinion, if he ever needed one. It was hours before the alarm blared through the town.

The Arts Kete: Learning Guitar Chords #3.

Today was my fifth workshop lesson based around guitar chords.
Before this lesson, I knew D, G, and A, and was able to switch between them effectively.
I now know the E chord, and am learning to switch from D G and A to E quickly and effectively.

The E chord is very annoying to switch to and I find switching to it annoying.

I hope that, with practice, the E chord will just come naturally.

Christ's College Leadership Conference: Be Inspired.

On Wednesday, a selected group of Year 7 students were invited to Christ's College to attend a leadership conference titled: "Be Inspired."

The conference consisted eight workshops, each different. Each group of students only got to take part in two of the workshops, though.

I very much enjoyed listening to a man named Cameron Calkoen talk.
Cam has a disability that essentially makes it take longer for brain waves to get to his body, which means he walks abnormally, and talks with a constant limp. Despite this, Cam trained for 11 years to be a sprinter, and ended up as a representative for Toyota.

I'll definitely remember how Cam said to:

"Dream Big, Achieve More."

This quote actually made me think about how I am constantly limiting myself, in what I believe I can do. I am always setting an extremely high goal, and then lowering it because of anxiousness that I'll never reach it. "Dream Big, Achieve More" has had an impact on how I perceive the goals I set to myself, and these words are going to stick with me for as long as I will be able to remember them.

In summary, I learnt a lot at this conference, and I had a lot of fun.

The Arts Kete: Learning Guitar Chords.

Today, the Arts Kete has started and I have chosen my workshop.
I have chosen to learn all of the basic guitar chords.

Being the first lesson, we have only learnt three chords so far, and I am yet to perfect even those, but I know that this is a very good start.

We have learnt D, A and G.

I have learnt to switch from D, to A quickly, but I still have to learn to switch from G, to A, and from G to D, and vice versa.

I find it hard to play for longer than 5 minutes, because my fingers start to burn from pushing on the strings.

The Emoji Movie, a Holiday "Lowlight."

The Emoji Movie.

The Cinema was busy. I don’t know why it was, speaking that there weren’t many movies on at the time. My Mother and I got a lot of weird looks, as we took our tickets to see such an atrocious movie. The only thought that went through my mind was the fact that I was pouring a perfectly good hour and a half of my time off of school down the drain, just to watch some stupid movie that scored eccentrically low on so many critic websites. I had incredibly low expectations, yet the Emoji movie still found a way to disappoint me.

“It’s embarrassing to be seen here. Remind me why we’re watching this?” I asked my Mother, an obviously phlegmatic look on my face. “Because it looks like a good movie. Critic websites are all harsh, and I’ve enjoyed movies that critics hated.” My Mother was an optimist. The Emoji Movie was turning me into a pessimist. I mean, at least it did something.

We entered the room where our movie was to be screened. Unsurprisingly, the screening room wasn’t packed, or busy at all for the matter. It was rather empty.

As always, the ads played. We even had to re - watch the advertisement for the movie we were about to see! Were there that little movies at the time?

By the time we were halfway through the movie, I was already tired of the unfunny jokes and predictable cliches. I can’t even begin to complain about how the “plot twists” have no relevance to the story, or matter. This movie had a 50 Million USD budget! That’s almost 70 Million NZD! What happened?

What annoyed me most was how generic the whole movie was. I’m surprised that Sony of all companies had to make this hectic mess. Generic love story between main characters, generic movie, generic ending. Watching the trailer sums up the entire movie. I don’t know why we paid twenty dollars to see it.

To sum it all up, the Emoji Movie was bad.

Very, very, very bad.

T h e  E n d .

Check out the rottentomatoes.com ratings for this movie.

Exploring Blogs.

We are learning to create a positive digital footprint.

We often share personal information when we are online. The people we share with could be our friends and family or people we don't know. We need to make smart decisions about what personal information we share online.

Reflection:

Aerodynamics

Aerodynamics

Fins on Formula 1 cars

1. Aim: To find out which fin creates the least amount of drag.

2. Hypothesis: The helicopter with the longest fins will create the most drag.

3. Method:

Equipment:

Scissors
Helicopter copies
Paperclips

1. In pairs you will cut out the 4 different helicopters.
2. One member of your group holds the helicopter at a 2Metre height and releses it.
3. On the count of three, the helicopter is released and the person dropping the helicopter releases it.
4. Record your results in the graph chart .
5. Repeat each drop three times

4. Results:

Wing Span	Time to fall	Time to fall	Time to fall	Average time
3cm	1.57s	1.24s	1.47s	1.46s
4	1.08s	1.30s	2.14s	1.5s
5	1.71s	2.43s	1.91s	2.01s
6	2.26s	2.27s	3.01s	2.51s

From the table of results, plot a graph of the average time to fall.

Autumn, A Poem.

Autumn.

The leaf on the twig, the twig on the tree, the tree, giving shade to a bumble bee.

The leaf turned brown, started falling down, and landed on the ground in the carpark of Countdown.

Followed by others, leaves that were Brothers, leaves that were Sisters, and leaves that were Fathers and Mothers.

It was clear to the town, along with the Playground, as well as the stores around, that Autumn had started…

...and then came the nervous breakdown.

Gymnastics

Today in P.E. I learnt to:
Use a Beat board correctly.
Walk quicker down the Beam.

Book Review: Skulduggery Pleasant.

An excellent book. I highly recommend reading it.

Creative Poem.

Can you guess what it is?

The Witch Hunt

The Witch Hunt.

A large, strong man walked through the woods. His clothing, stained with velvet red blood. His large greatsword, shining in the moonlight. His white hair, tidily kept in a ponytail.

He took out a map of the area. “It’s close.” He says, walking forward. Music could be heard faintly in the distance, from the colossal town that he had recently visited. The man saw a shack in the distance. “Finally.” He says, with a menacing grin. The man then  unsheathed his silver greatsword. Indistinct voices could be heard through the walls of the small shack. A figure walked out the open door of the shack.

“Hello, Garrett…” She said.

“China Sorrows, I’m here to kill you.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

And then Garrett sprinted forward.

Persuasive Text: Stay Healthy.

My class had to write a persuasive letter to somebody that will convince them to change to a healthier lifestyle. So I created this.
If text has a yellow highlight, then it is a "Persuasive Word / Phrase."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory (Last Name)

180 Waterloo Road

8042

Wednesday, 30th August.

Kayla (Last Name)

180 Waterloo Road

8042

Dear Kayla,

I strongly believe that the way you are currently maintaining yourself is unacceptable, and that you should change to a healthier lifestyle. This lifestyle change includes maintaining Physical, Emotional / Mental and Social well being. I believe that this new change of living will drastically increase your lifespan, and make you far more confident in yourself, and your body.

Maintaining Physical Wellbeing.

Maintaining a healthy body is very important to keeping fit. You must exercise regularly, for about an hour a day, and you must consistently harvest the vitamins and proteins in certain foods, such as meat, fruit and vegetables. This will make your body far stronger, much more healthy and will help your immune system to defend your body from bacteria. Be sure to avoid junk food, and sitting down for too long, so you don’t overload on carbohydrates and become overweight. This will make you far more confident in your body.

Maintaining Mental / Emotional Wellbeing.

Mental Wellbeing is an essential step to being happy. You have to stay confident in yourself, and try new things. You have to say: “I can do this, and if I don’t think I can, I’m going to try anyway.” This is called a “Growth Mindset.” A ‘Growth Mindset’ is a state of mind where you have to think you can do anything. Always try your best and find the positives out of everything (while avoiding the negatives), this will result in a drastic increase of happiness and confidence in yourself.

Maintaining Social Wellbeing.

It is paramount to sustain some sort of “Social Wellbeing.” It is crucial to make plenty of friends outside the house and maybe have a Penpal who you can write to. Join a book club or something similar and stay active, always attending meetings and interacting with other members of the club. This will make it far easier to talk to other people.

In conclusion, I believe that maintaining Physical Wellbeing will make you more confident in your body. I also believe that maintaining Social Wellbeing will make it easier to talk to other people. Finally, I believe that Mental Wellbeing will help you stay happy and confident in yourself. Yours Sincerely,

Gregory.

PE: Gymnastics

I like Gymnastics for it's Trampolining.

I'd love to learn to be a better trampolinist, and to learn how to do a parkour roll.

I didn't enjoy this class because of how the moves we did were rather boring.

How Resilient am I?

Four Exercises will be done by us the students, and we will see how long we can go doing each one. We will then time ourselves in a circuit, where we will see how fast we can do each activity.
Exercises we will do:
- Stride Jumps. - 39.75. (sensibly sounded to 40.)
- Push - Ups. - 6.75 (sensibly rounded to
- Curl - Ups.
- Burpees.
- Skipping.

Reading Timeline Project: MARVEL Inc.

This is my reading project, a timeline about MARVEL Inc. I started it in Term 2, and finished it a week ago.

Persuasive Text.

Here is my writing. We are learning to write persuasive texts and how to write a letter.

Words in this colour are "Persuasive."

Gregory

180 Waterloo Road

8042

Friday, 30th June, 2017

Mr. (Principal),

180 Waterloo Road

8042

Dear Mr. (Principal),

I am writing this letter to you because I believe that Mrs Shehata is a significantly better teacher than Ms. Tozer and deserves a pay rise, because she’s a great listener, is fair and has an incredible desire to give us the best learning experience possible.

If a student had a problem, Mrs. Shehata would always stop whatever she was doing and listen to that student. She could sit for hours just listening to one student’s problem. This makes students feel as if they have someone to talk to, which is always a good feeling.

Mrs. Shehata is consistently fair to students. She encourages sharing, taking turns and always gives fair punishments. She always has a reason and believes that students have a right to know why something is happening. 7Sh loves this about Mrs. Shehata.

Mrs. Shehata is giving 110%, 24/7, 365. Her enthusiasm for teaching always makes her students want to be in the class so that they can be taught by Mrs. Shehata. She always comes into 7Sh with a smile on her face, ready for the next 6 hours.

I strongly advise giving Mrs. Shehata a raise, for she is a great listener, she is fair with students and she loves teaching.

Yours Sincerely,

Greg, Year 7.

My Kete Assessment Thinglink.

Stratification

Excuse the awfulness of the drawing, I made it in MS Paint.

Hornby High Winter Sport!

Winter Sport!

Hornby High School has been busy playing Winter Sports, including League, Hockey, Football / Soccer and Netball.

It's action packed, fast paced fun for the Year 7/8 students.

Here are some of the highlights from Rugby, Netball and Football:

Look at this impressive save from Zion, a Year 7!

 Everybody watched in awe, as Shalisa shot into the hoop...!

Hornby enters defensive mode, as Prebbelton sprints down the field, trying to score.

My Audience

We are learning to create a positive digital footprint

We often share personal information when we are online, the people we share could be family or people we don't know. We need to make smart decisions about what personal information we share online.

Reflection:

The Challenge - DRAFT

(DRAFT)

The Challenge.

T’was on a cloudless, Summery day that my Brother challenged me to marathon one of the most punishing, Hellish games known to mankind.

Dark Souls II

The game is about slaying incredibly difficult beasts, known as 'Bosses.' These bosses are very annoying to deal with, and make many give up on the game. But not this nerd. "Okie Dokie." I say.

After I had nourished myself on a delectable cuisine known as ‘Cocoa Pops,’ I turned on the Xbox, and the challenge began. I had to put it on the hardest difficulty, with the hardest settings, and using the worst weaponry. It was at this point, that I realised what was about to happen. I wanted to take back everything I said. This was gonna stink.

It was hard enough beating the tutorial level. I was already imagining what the most irritating bosses were going to be like. I paused the game, and looked at my Brother’s facial expression. As smug as ever. “You want to try?” I asked him, slightly frustrated. “I’m not the one who agreed.” He replied with, laughing maniacally. He knew my pain.

After multiple hours had passed, I was a good way in the game. Giving up wasn’t an option. My palms were sweaty, knees weak and arms were heavy. All I could smell was the aroma of Mum’s Spaghetti Lunch. It was the only thing taking my mind off of the abomination in which I was facing.

“NEIN!” I exclaimed, dropping my controller. “THAT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! THAT’S NOT FAIR!” Steam was coming out of my ears, I was infuriated. I had spent a whole day, just getting to this point. The final level. One life. I had nothing to help me if everything went bad. This wasn’t fun. The final boss was hard enough in regular mode. Let alone, using the worst weapons on the hardest difficulty. It was like my biggest challenge was staring me down the eyes.

My instinct told me to take everything slow, carefully planning my movements. I couldn’t rush this. I was too far in, to just lose it all. My last life went to waste, by forgetting to pause the game when I traversed over to the sink, to indulge on a flavourless, bland drink glass of tap water. I felt like such an idiot. The feeling of investing so much time into something, only to have it ruined, just crushed my soul.

My brother isn't ever going to let me forget that glorious moment.
He's always walking past and screaming, "DARK SOULS!"
If I ask him to play, it's always; "I'll play, if you won't get a glass of water."

Let it go man, let it go.

Forces.

Motion - It's a push / pull.

Gravity - For an object to remain still, there has to be a balance.

Friction - The rubbing of two objects together.

Objects at rest remain in rest, objects in motion will remain in motion. In a straight line, remains in a straight line.

Force equals mass times acceleration.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Which Bubble Gum is Best?

Chewing gum experiment You will be in groups of 3 students to test the which gum is the best for bubble, stretch and taste. Aim: To see which bubble gum makes the best Bubbles, has the best elasticity and keeps its taste for the longest. Hypothesis: I think that the Hubba Bubba will make the largest bubble and have the longest stretch. The ? will have the longest taste. Equipment: 3 different chewing gum brands stop watch ruler graph to record detail. Method: Place the first piece of chewing gum in your mouth and time how long it takes to keep its taste. Chew the gum and record this time on the chart. Using the same piece of gum blow a bubble. Record on the chart as 'no bubble', 'small', 'medium', 'large'. Test for elasticity. Keep all of the gum in your mouth and see how long you can stretch it. Measure it and record its length. Findings: Hubba Bubba - 1min 3 seconds - Medium Bubble - 37cm. Extra - 1min 15 seconds - No Bubble - 38cm. PK - 44 seconds - Small Bubble - 41cm. Hubba Bubba is best for blowing bubbles, while Extra an PK aren't so good. Hubba Bubba has best Bubble average and length in class, While PK had the longest taste in class, Conclusion: From what I think, Hubba Bubba is the best gum to buy when you want Bubble Gum. What makes bubble gum blow good bubbles? Artificial / Pure Rubber. How much sugar is in bubble gum? 6g for most, (Hubba Bubba, Extra.) What is the largest bubble gum bubble made? 50.8cm by (USA) Chad Fell, 24 April 2004.

Bouncing Balls.

Bouncing Balls

Aim:
I want to find out if there is a relationship between how high a ball is dropped from and how high it bounces up.

Hypothesis:

I believe that the concrete ground will make the ball bounce higher, than if it was on carpet.

Method:
The equipment that I will need is:

• Bouncy ball
• Ruler
• Stand with boss head and clamp

1. Attach the clamp to the stand.
2. Clamp the ruler onto the stand so that the zero mark is on the ground.
3. Hold the bottom of the ball on 50cm and drop.
4. Record the height of the bounce measuring the bottom of the ball.
5. Repeat the experiment twice more and record the average measurement.
6. Repeat the whole experiment using heights of 60cm, 70cm, 80cm, 90cm, 100cm

                                   
Variables:

Independent (changing) Variable = The height of the drop
Dependent (measured) Variable = The height of the bounce

Results:

Carpet:

Height of Drop	Height of Bounce
80cm	33cm
90cm	34cm
100m	34cm

Concrete:

Height of Drop	Height of Bounce
80cm	40cm
90cm	43cm
1m	51cm

Findings:

• 80 cm - Concrete: 40cm. Carpet: 33cm.
• 90cm - Concrete: 43. Carpet: 34.
• 1m - Concrete: 51cm. Carpet: 34cm. 

Discussion: I think the wind might've affected some of the drop heights.

Conclusion: I think concrete is more dense, and that made the ball bounce higher.                            Concrete is also much harder than carpet, and flatter, creating friction.

Evaluation: Concrete had an effect on the ball's bounce height.

Welcome to 2017!

It's only been four months since January 1st...

I'm a bit late to the party.

Gravity.

Newton has 3 Laws of Motion.

1. An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

2.Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass (of the object being accelerated) the greater the amount of force needed (to accelerate the object).

3. For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action.

Aim: To make a helicopter and look at the force of gravity.

Hypothesis: The size of the wings will effect the speed that the helicopter travels.

Equipment:

1. Stopwatch - use the Google stopwatch on your chromebook
2. Helicopter template / paper
3. Drawing pin

Method:

1. Make the helicopter by cutting out the template.
2. Drop the helicopter from a height. Use the same person.
3. Time each drop and record the time when it hits the floor.
4. Each time it is dropped you will make a change to its form.

• With a paperclip on the bottom.
• Use heavier material ( Cardboard)
• Cut the body in half to give it a short body.
• Cut the wings to give it short wings

1. Time each time you drop it.
2. Record the findings on a chart

Order from top to bottom: Short Body, Short Wings, Cardboard, Paperclip.

 

Findings: The cardboard and short wing  helicopters didn't actually spin, they just fell to the ground. The paperclip helped the helicopter glide straight down. Short body was incredibly effective and really helped the helicopter in its quest to fall down slowly.

Summary: Short Body was incredibly helpful to the helicopter, and the best for a long - gliding paper helicopter.